The year may be on its last legs, but the frenzy of ‘Best of 2013’ lists continues.
Following on from Tone Deaf’s very own ream of end-of-year celebrations and overviews (many of which you can vote on in our Readers Poll), there’s also been Queens Of The Stone Age‘s list of their favourite albums of the last 12 months, as well as a gloriously curse-dotted ‘rant-trospective’ from Noel Gallagher, while a strong contingent of Aussie bands invaded NME’s 2013 Best-of lists.
Now two more tastemakers have offered their takes on the best albums of 2013.
First up is the team behind St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, who ahead of next February’s Aussie edition of the annual boutique music festival have offered their own ‘Best albums of 2013′ lists, which unsurprisingly includes a number of acts that are appearing on the Laneway 2014 lineup.
Festival co-founder Danny Rogers leads the pack, who picks Blood Orange’s sophomore effort Cupid Deluxe and The Range’s (aka electronic producer James Hinton) Non-Fiction in his Top of the year, alongside three Laneway billed acts; namely the debut album from Scottish synth trio Chvrches, new wave hip hop star Danny Brown, and all-female post-punk band Savages.
The Laneway ‘Best Albums of 2013’ post also talks up the appearance of Savages’ Silence Yourself LP on a number of music media year-end lists. “We booked Savages to play Laneway 2014 after falling hard for their live show, firstly, at one of their very early shows in London, and secondly, after seeing them at SXSW early in 2013,” the post reads. “Savages put on an unmissable show, simply put they’re one of the best live acts on the bill. Do not miss this band.”
Aside from bigging up the Laneway 2014 lineup – with other members of the festival team lauding releases from Kurt Vile, Dick Diver, Four Tet, Jagwar Ma, Autre Ne Veut, Adalita, Lorde, Parquet Courts, Violent Soho, and others – the festival are offering up a double pass to the 2014 edition of the festival, along with a prize pack, for fans who email them with their own favourite album release of 2013 (more details here). There was but one Australian band voted into the listeners’ Best Albums of 2013… Richard Kingsmill’s own personal Top 10 was slightly kinder to Aussie artists…
Meanwhile Laneway sponsors Triple J, who recently announced the Unearthed Laneway competition winners joining the 2014 lineup, have revealed the results of their annual album poll.
For the 2013 list, Triple J Music Director Richard Kingsmill once again put the call out to the station’s nation-wide listenership to vote for their Top 10 albums of the year, collating the results and announcing them on-air as part of the Sunday night new music show, 2013.
The listener results of the Triple J album poll, which often act as an interesting pre-cursor to how the Hottest 100 voting (open this Friday) may swing, saw Sheffield rock scamps Arctic Monkeys topping the list, with the Australia-bound quartet’s fifth and latest album, AM, beating out Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, Arcade Fire’s Reflektor, and Falls/Southbound headliners Vampire Weekend (at #2, #3, and #4 respectively).
There was but one Australian band voted into the listeners’ Best Albums of 2013 Top 10; Boy & Bear’s second album Harlequin Dream charting at #7, while the debut albums from Triple J favourites (and Sheryl Crow collaborators) Lorde and Haim beat the nu-folkies (at #5 and #6 respectively). Rounding out the Top 10 were the latest albums from Foals (one of the Hardest Working Bands of 2013), Brooklyn indie royalty The National, and Kanye ‘Yeezus’ West.
Richard Kingsmill’s own personal Top 10 Albums of 2013 list was slightly kinder to Australian artists, with The Drones sixth (and possibly best) album I See Seaweed making the cut at #10, with Atlas, the ARIA-topping debut from RUFUS landing at #6.
There was also nods for Queens of the Stone Age, Danny Brown, and Massachusetts cult indie act Speedy Ortiz for their sophomore album Major Arcana. Kingsmill’s Top 5 albums featured – in ranking order – Arcade Fire, Fuck Buttons’ Slow Focus, Arctic Monkeys, Daft Punk, and the Triple J Music Director’s favourite album of the year, James Blake’s Mercury Prize-winning effort, Overgrown.
View the full Best of 2013 album lists from Laneway and Triple J below.
Laneway Festival Best Of 2013 Lists
Danny Rogers, Laneway Festival Co-Founder
1. CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe
2. The Range – Non-Fiction
3. Danny Brown – Old
4. Savages – Silence Yourself
5. Blood Orange – Cupid Deluxe
Mark Kneebone, Laneway Festival NZ
1. Tomahawk – Oddfellows
2. Danny Brown – Old
3. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away
4. The Dillinger Escape Plan – One Of Us Is The Killer
5. Savages – Silence Yourself
Emma Doilibi, Laneway Festival Australia
1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mosquito
2. Rufus – Atlas
3. CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe
4. Savages – Silence Yourself
5. Phosphorescent – Muchacho
Ben Howe, Laneway Festival NZ
1. Mikal Cronin – MCII
2. Kurt Vile – Walkin’ On A Pretty Daze
3. Dick Diver – Calender Days
4. Courtney Barnett – The Double EP
5. Braids – Flourish//Perish
Claire Collins, Laneway Festival Australia
1. Nick Cave – Push The Sky Away
2. Jagwar Ma – Howlin’
3. Autre Ne Veut – Anxiety
4. Dick Diver – Calendar Days
5. Lorde – Pure Heroine
Katie Stewart, Laneway Festival Australia
1. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
2. CHVRCHES – The Bones of What You Believe
3. David Bowie – The Next Day
4. Adalita – All Day Venus
5. Rhye – Woman
Travis Banko, Laneway Festival Australia
1. Danny Brown – Old
2. Savages – Silence Yourself
3. Kanye West – Yeezus
4. Majical Cloudz – Impersonator
5. Darkside – Psychic
Jena Chupungco, Laneway Festival Australia
1. Danny Brown – OLD
2. CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe
3. Violent Soho – Hungry Ghost
4. Jon Hopkins – Immunity
5. Kanye West – Yeezus
Melody Forghani, Laneway Festival Australia
1. Jagwar Ma – Howlin’
2. Lorde – Pure Herione
3. M.I.A. – Matangi
4. Big Scary – Not Art
5. Cloud Control – Dream Cave
Craig Lock, Laneway Festival Adelaide
1. CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe
2. Blood Orange – Cupid Deluxe
3. Foals – Holy Fire
4. Jagwa Ma – Howlin
5. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
Audrey Fenghuang, Laneway Festival Singapore
1. Disclosure – Settle
2. CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe
3. Local Natives – Hummingbird
4. Justin Timberlake – 20/20 Experience
5. Arctic Monkeys – AM
Ash Miles, Mistletone Records & Touring
1. Factory Floor – Factory Floor
2. Julianna Barwick – Nepenthe
3. Prudence Rees-Lees – Court Music From The Planet Of Love
4. The Ancients – Night Bus
5. The Pastels – Slow Summits
Sophie Miles, Mistletone Records & Touring
1. Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum
2. Destroyer – Five Spanish Songs
3. Kelley Stoltz – Double Exposure
4. Chris Cohen – Overgrown Path
5. Oneohtrix Point Never – R Plus Seven
Soner Sahan, Future Classic
1. Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind
2. The Knife – Shaking The Habitual
3. Forest Swords – Engravings
4. Blondes – Swisher
5. DJ Koze – Amygdala
Triple J Best Of 2013 Lists
Top 10 Albums of 2013 (Voted by Triple J listeners):
1. Arctic Monkeys – AM
2. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
3. Arcade Fire – Reflektor
4. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City
5. Lorde – Pure Heroine
6. Haim – Days Are Gone
7. Boy & Bear – Harlequin Dream
8. Foals – Holy Fire
9. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
10. Kanye West – Yeezus
Richard Kingsmill’s Top 10 Albums of 2013:
1. James Blake – Overgrown
2. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
3. Arctic Monkeys – AM
4. Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus
5. Arcade Fire – Reflektor
6. RUFUS – Atlas
7. Speedy Ortiz – Major Arcana
8. Queens Of The Stone Age – …Like Clockwork
9. Danny Brown – Old
10. The Drones – I See Seaweed
